Despite its art nouveau attraction, we thought we could knock off Nancy in two days. Four days later, we left very reluctantly. We've visited a number of French cities, but none has grabbed us the way Nancy did. It will take five or six posts just to scratch the surface, so bear with me here.
After picking up our camper in Reuil-Malmaison, we drove straight--well, around the south of Paris--to Nancy, stopping for provisions at the huge Auchon in the Nancy suburbs. We found the 3 Maisons parking area easily and spent the evening moving in to our new home. With just three smaller items of luggage, this did not take long.
Relevant background history of Nancy in three observations: 1) Nancy has been around since about 1000CE, was the seat of the dukes of Lorrain, although contested by the dukes of Burgundy, for many centuries; 2) King Stanislaus of Poland was deposed in the mid-18th century, but his son-in-law, Louis XV, gave him Lorrain as a consolation prize, and Stanislaus was a good king, turning Nancy into a major capital city; 3) after the Franco/Prussian war, the Germans took Alsace (which the French had taken in previous wars), and many of its French residents, particularly those with money and skill, moved to Nancy, France's then eastern-most outpost. They arrived just in time for Art Nouveau, and had the money and skill to make Nancy "the cradle of Art Nouveau." We arrived June 6th just in time to enjoy Nancy's "Art Nouveau Days." See illustration.
Next morning, June 7th, we walked the short distance into the old city and did some reconnaissance and research, the main result of which was the realization we would need more than two days to see the place and therefore would need to move to a campground that provided electricity.
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| Though the walls are mostly gone, many of Nancy old portals remain... |
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| Welcome to the old city |
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| Another portal and tunnel |
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| Oh no! It was a time tunnel! |
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Leading to Medieval towers and another gate; note
Cross of Lorrain (two transepts) |
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| And beyond, Renaissance doors |
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The approach of the tourist train, however, assuaged our fears of
being lost in time |
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We continued walking along, admiring the ducal
palace |
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| And its ducal doors |
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| Another gate! |
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And beyond, a neo-Gothic church (19th century) we
decided was not worthy of our attention |
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| Now walking through the impressive Place de la Carriere |
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| And approaching a final gate, the entrance to the Place Stanislaus |
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It's all World Heritage...
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| And entering the Place Stanislaus |
Which is an enormous square, no ground-level picture could do
justice to...so I have resorted to Google Earth...the Place Carriere is
the sort of panhandle...the Hotel de Ville is at Place Stanislaus' head
(greenish) and four grand building are at its sides...the opera, the
grand hotel, and the musee des beaux artes...to the other great city
squares of Europe...Brussels, Venice, Salamanca, you can add this
one
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| Musee des Beaux Artes, where we'll spend a day |
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So I figure Stantislaus had been to Versailles and understood how things should look |
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| The Hotel de Ville |
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| Side street emanating from the Place |
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| The cafe Foy, where we'd have lunch in a few days |
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| The Grand Opera |
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The Grand Hotel...more and better pix of Place Stanislaus in due
course |
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| Tucked away a block or so out of sight is the Cathedral |
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Another non-descript Baroque job whose deteriorating ceiling was netted |
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In one of the side chapels, we couldn't decide whether these were for Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or regular, decaf, and hot water |
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Anyhow, we wandered the old town further, the marina, etc., before heading back to the camper, another shopping spree at the Auchan, and relocating to the Bel Air Camping at Brabois |
